Fresh faces key for Eagles

HATTIESBURG — HATTIESBURG – Southern Miss baseball fans should get a good look at the future of the program when the Golden Eagles open the season today against Nicholls State.

While two veterans won’t be in the lineup – senior outfielder Kameron Brunty and junior second baseman Isaac Rodriguez start the season on suspension – a pair of highly touted freshmen likely will earn their first starts.

The emergence of Connor Barron and Mason Robbins are a big sign of change for a team that has lost stars like Todd McInnis, Collin Cargill and B.A. Vollmuth.

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2.17.12

UAB clips USM…. again

BIRMINGHAM — UAB has been a major buzz-kill for Southern Miss this athletic season.

Last November, the USM football team fell to an inferior UAB team in Birmingham in a loss that potentially cost the program a BCS bowl bid.

On Wednesday, the Blazers soundly out-played first-place Southern Miss in basketball, taking a 71-61 victory at Bartow Arena, snapping USM’s five-game winning streak.

“You can look at it which ever way you want to look at it, we got our (butts) kicked every way, upside and down,” a clearly frustrated USM coach Larry Eustachy said. “You can look at this, look at that. We got hammered by a much more determined, much more physical team. They were the far superior team tonight.”

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2.9.12

Staying the course: Johnson hopes to continue USM’s winning ways

HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss is changing football coaches, but if new boss Ellis Johnson has his way, the schemes and fundamentals of game plans probably won’t change much at all.

Johnson, 59 and a 29-year veteran of college coaching, plans to build on the success of Larry Fedora’s fast break style of football, which this season produced the first 11-victory season in school history.

“I’ve got great respect for what (Fedora) has accomplished,” Johnson told the crowd of approximately 250 fans at his introductory press conference. “I think he’s one of the great offensive coaches in our profession today, and I hope we can continue the exciting and productive offense he has produced.

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12.20.11

New Golden Eagles coach has answers for red flags

HATTIESBURG — You look at Ellis Johnson’s football resume’ and two potential red flags jump out about the University of Southern Mississippi’s new coach.

One: Coach, about your age, you turn 60 Friday, don’t you?

“I’ve had no complaints from my wife, Caroline,” the white-haired Johnson deadpanned to uproarious laughter from Golden Eagle fans at Tuesday’s news conference/pep rally introducing Johnson as the 19th coach in USM history.

“My kids, my 11-year-old, my 9-year-old and my 7-year-old are pretty tough and I’ve kept up with them,” Johnson continued as the laughter finally died down.

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12.20.11

Ellis Johnson to be next USM coach

HATTIESBURG — Veteran defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson will be the next football coach at Southern Miss, two people with direct knowledge of the negotiations said late Monday night.

A press conference to announce the hiring of Johnson, 59, could be held as soon as today in Hattiesburg.

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12.20.11

UNC AD: Hiring Fedora as new coach brings ‘great expectations’

CHAPEL HILL One by one, members of The University of North Carolina Board of Governors lined up and walked toward Bubba Cunningham, the new University of North Carolina athletic director. They extended their hands, congratulated him. Cunningham, a few weeks into the job, walked out of the room with a smile.

The news wasn’t official then but about an hour later it became so, when UNC announced this afternoon that Larry Fedora will be the Tar Heels’ new head football coach. Fedora, 49, comes to North Carolina after four years at Southern Mississippi, where this season he guided the Golden Eagles to the Conference USA championship this season.

charlotteobserver.com
12/8/11

Eagles go thud
Southern Miss comes crashing to earth at hands of struggling UAB

BIRMINGHAM — The disappointment continued Thursday for Southern Miss when it comes to playing the struggling UAB football program.

After entering the Sugar Bowl conversation this week, the the 22nd-ranked Golden Eagles fell flat in their third straight loss to the Blazers.

UAB’s Ty Long kicked a 38-yard field goal with 3:04 left in the game at Legion Field to lift the Blazers to a 34-31 win over USM (9-2, 5-2 C-USA).

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11.18.11

Winning keeps opening USM possibilities

HATTIESBURG — Following a 26-20 loss at Marshall in the second game of the season, winning the Conference USA East Division seemed like a tall mountain for Southern Miss to climb.

Eight consecutive victories later, the East is well within reach, the Liberty Bowl is a good possibility and the Golden Eagles are eying an even greater postseason destination – a possible BCS bowl.

It’s a longshot at this point, but USM (9-1, 5-1) is one of three teams (along with Houston and TCU) in the running for a spot in one of the five high-paying BCS games, most likely the Sugar Bowl.

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11.15.11

ATLANTA — Atlanta’s majestic skyline serves as the backdrop for historic Russ Chandler Stadium, a cozy, brick ballpark, where Magnolia State baseball rivals Mississippi State University and the University of Southern Mississippi will play at 2 p.m. today in the first round of the NCAA Atlanta Regional.

Top-seeded Georgia Tech faces Austin Peay in the second game tonight, and the guess here is that Atlantans will be outnumbered by Mississippians when the day is done. State, playing in its first baseball regional since 2007, and USM, returning to the site of one of the greatest moments in USM baseball history, will be followed by hundreds, if not thousands, of fans.

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6.3.11

I was rather taken aback when I saw the schedules for all three schools for next fall’s football season. The one blaring similarity hit me and I did not want to believe it. I completely understand the reason Memphis happens to pop up on everyone’s schedules. Memphis is nearby to Oxford and Starkville and has an intense rivalry with USM. The same logic cannot be applied to the 2011 schedules, where all three will host Louisiana Tech. Tech and Southern Miss have an old rivalry that has just been restarted in the last year, but Ole Miss and MSU have no reason to be playing the Western Athletic Conference member. State will pay the school out of Ruston, La. $700,000 to come to Starkville. This huge sum of money should be kept in the state of Mississippi.

With the Mississippi State Bulldogs wising up and agreeing to play Southern Miss, it is time for Ole Miss to follow suit. All indications are pointing towards this being a long way off from happening.  I guess we will just have to enjoy seeing victories on every other field except the football field.

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3.29.11